Marvel’s Wolverine’s Cartoon Suits Are a Crime Against Humanity
Why do they look like this?
Marvel's Wolverine has a much darker tone than Insomniac Games' last three releases in the Spider-Man series. It comes with the character, after all; Peter Parker is much more PG, webbing his foes up and punching them until they're out cold, just as Pokémon battles don't actually kill the combatants. Meanwhile, James "Logan" Howlett spends the entire 20-hour duration of Marvel's Wolverine plunging his foot-long claws into the guts of countless foes, coating the environment in their blood.
Released Sept. 15 for PlayStation 5, Marvel's Wolverine is the latest AAA blockbuster from Insomniac Games. Where the studio's Spider-Man games put Peter Parker and Miles Morales in an open-world New York, Wolverine is a much more linear game, focusing on its tighter storytelling from one mission to the next. It's also faced plenty of criticism, both in reviews and on social media, due to how much the game guides the player through the moment-to-moment action with things like quick-time events and a visual aide showing where to go next in the mission, rather than letting the player figure it out for themselves. It also has unlockable suits, and while most are great, a few are downright terrible.
[Ed. note: This article contains some spoilers for Marvel's Wolverine, so continue at your own risk.]
Two of the suits in Marvel's Wolverine — the Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls and Animated suits, to be precise — are cartoon, cel-shaded outfits for Logan. In isolation, they look pretty cool. While they don't benefit from the impressive tech used to animate every individual strand on Wolverine's incredibly hairy chest, they're certainly bold and very bright.
However, because they stand out so much, they're jarringly inappropriate within the context of the game's story. Marvel's Wolverine focuses on Logan battling his inner demons, trying to rein in the part of him that wants to become a ruthless killing machine. Throughout the story, he learns about a past that he's long since forgotten and has no desire to return to.
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There are scenes that are meant to be gut-wrenching. Jean Grey becomes Logan's love interest, but there's a moment they fall out on the streets of Tokyo, shortly after you unlock the Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls suit. I'd crafted and equipped it immediately out of curiosity, but it took me right out of the moment because Wolverine looks absurd, especially against the moody, solemn lighting.
Then there are other moments, such as when Logan almost stabs Jean during a nightmarish episode, or when Wolverine is forced to kill his good friend and fellow mutant (albeit dormant for most of the game), Walter Langkowski, aka Sasquatch. Having one of these two suits equipped during these moments, or even during gameplay when such a huge amount of blood is being shed and Wolverine is going into an unbridled rage, clashes with the game's tone.
Let me be clear: these suits are entirely optional. You don't even have to craft them when you unlock them if you don't want to. And you may even argue that the game providing optional comic relief is a good thing. But where these comic-themed suits worked for the Spider-Man games, they look ridiculous in Marvel's Wolverine.